1/29 Season Three, Episode 11: Wrong Way Home–Scarecrow and Mrs King

Hi Everyone.. I’m looking forward to revisiting this episode – for me it has been a very long time since I saw it. I actually started to watch it through one time last night – as prep for blogging it.. but got about 10 minutes in and though – nah.. I want to blog this one as it unfolds! why I don’t know.. Just please keep this in mind when reading my comments.. I don’t remember how the episode plays out in detail – but it is such a significant episode that I want to experience it as the story unfolds- without a big picture of how the episode ends.

Also being a bit of a milestone episode – I am guessing those of you who know this episode well will have firm ideas of what is going on in different scenes – I look forward to hearing all your ideas! I’m heading in to this pretty open – who knows maybe we all will see new things together.. I think some scenes I won’t be sure what I think of them – until I’ve seen the whole ep.. but I’m looking forward to exploring possible meanings as we go with you all hopefully!

Huge thank you to Kiwismh for transcribing the dialogue of this episode – and attempting to transcribe the French here at the start of this ep – Kiwismh that is service above and beyond tee hee.. Or should I say – Merci Beaucoup!
Kiwismh has also sent me script notes on this episode (thank you!!) so what I’ll do is- I’ll publish those at the bottom of the relevant posts and label them ‘Kiwismh script notes’

So without further ado – here is.. The Wrong Way Home!

Already.. as the episode opens we get a sense that this episode is not operation normal. Why? you’ll see (eventually!)
We are told this is Estoccia, North Africa – not so unusual.. Only last week were were in another foreign made up country!we see stock footage to convince us we are actually in Estoccia. footage of planes delivering food aid It seems Estoccia is in times of famine..
Once again we see stock footage of real people in dire circumstances here being used to tell a story? Not a fan of that!!! I won’t publish those images here (lol aid from Canada from the looks of it Kudos to Canada!)
LOL.. lovely close up on US supplies arriving also!

But what’s different? anyone see it? I haven’t seen it yet.. but maybe already you’ve noticed something is missing..
We cut to a man carrying a briefcase at night, walking toward..…the prime minister’s building.ROFL! This is totally on the Warner’s lot.. I think that’s the school Princess Penny visited!
Here is where we also saw it in Spiderweb – we got a much wider view of it then..
Fascinating to see how they’ve altered the front area..Finally, we see who is the man with the briefcase.. – it’s Tucker from Murder Between Friends!! eek!!!
Whahahahah
Looks like he’s scraped all the cake off his face, out of his ears and moved on over to North Africa! 😉

A man standing at the front door is seen to receive a signal from one of the crowd by the fire (he lifts his hat) -signalling that this man with the briefcase has arrived..The man by the door takes note and goes inside.‘Tucker’ with the briefcase stops and chats to one of the guards in French.. The guard calls him ‘Joe’ – is that Joe Tucker?? or is this a completely new character? LOL.. I think we all know this answer but it’s interesting to think back on what it would have been like watching this as it aired and not having seen all the (likely) publicity that Amanda’s ex Joe was coming back on the scene!
They exchange friendly pleasantries in French.. I won’t include the dialogue – but thanks for giving it a go Kiwismh! Then the guard ironically comments on how peaceful a night it is! (ahhh smk loves irony ) This is the signal that all hell is about to break loose!

The man in the suit returns to the front door and shoots the guard – who had been standing in front of Joe (was Joe the intended target?) everyone scatters.. Joe drags the guard to take cover behind a bush or something – the guard tells him to save himself.. Already- we are being given clues that this Joe is a good guy.

The baddie runs out and seems to run past Joe not seeing him there.. at this point, Joe grabs the guard’s gun.. looks at it.. and then throws it down and starts running.. Hmm interesting.. was he about to start shooting at the baddie? but instead chose not to?Hmm.. interesting.. A few more armed guards exit the building and as Joe runs to the bike with his briefcase.We cut to a mysterious man leaving the Prime Minister’s building – draped in something and I guess, wanting to avoid detection.The shootings starts again.. Lucky for Joe they are a lousy shot! He manages to flee- missing the gunfire..We are left with a close up of the mysterious draped man.. his reaction to Joe getting away seems.. ambiguous.. friend or foe? we don’t know!I must say, as ‘Joe’ leaves we see there are very well manicured lawns.. lol.. 2 seconds ago it looks very rough! tee hee..

So the scene ends there.. 3 minutes into the episode already! And we cut to a shot of the Capitol Building – and it’s facade is being renovated –hmm this should make this stock footage easy to date – anyone?So-here is what’s different about this episode – finally 3 minutes in– we have the title of the episode! This is very unusual. I can’t remember having seen this before! So this is going to be a very unusual episode me thinks!

Okay guys.. keepin it (sort of) short and sweet.. so a post with no Lee and no Amanda?! well.. I did manage to sneak in a pic of them from spiderweb for now that will have to do! Soooo what are your impressions of this opening?? Do tell!!! Did anyone see this episode for the first time, not knowing Joe was about to make an appearance? byeee for now!

I don’t think back in the day I ever noticed that Joe was the bad guy from MBF. Didn’t notice that until I got the DVDS and could watch the episodes close enough together. Of course when this show first aired I was little and probably didn’t remember much. I got into it more in reruns. But I wonder if maybe we are not meant to like Joe so much despite his kind exterior in this episode. Maybe that is the point of using a former baddie, so we wouldn’t take to him right away. Maybe I am just over thinking it, but it seems weird to me now.

I don’t remember being very concerned with Sam Melville showing up again. I was a fan of “The Rookies,” as well, so I would probably have noted that it was him, but not much more. I don’t remember any really creepy baddies on any tv show who came back over and over (characters like the gravedigger or Pelant on Bones or Jerry Tyson on Castle). The baddie from Hawaii Five-O (can’t remember his name) was probably the worst one I remember, and he wasn’t really creepy…

I do remember going through this entire season thinking that finally Lee and Amanda were together outside of the agency, and what would happen then?

Tucker looks like he’s trimmed down a bit. Maybe he “quit sugar” after his close encounter with the buttercream icing 😉

I take everyone’s points about how at the time this episode aired, the Ethiopian famine was in the news, but this opening feels like more of SMK stereotyping “Africa” as seen “from the outside”. This bugs me, but that’s probably because this stereotype feels more personal for me than some that SMK have indulged in.

That aside, I’m very excited to be at the start of this momentous episode 🙂

It’s been fascinating to hear everyone’s comments giving these Africa glimpses some context. I gotta say – I was uncomfortable with them using real footage of real suffering people to tell their story.. now I know it was so of the time and current – I feel even less comfortable with it.
Oh well.. different times have different standards and I’m sure smk at the time was not dealing with world outrage at it’s use of this footage.. 😉 I think the outrage was only about Leslie and when were Lee and Amanda getting together already 😉

When I first saw this I had been teaching for about a year or so and I remember it made me think of the drought and famine in Ethiopia, Africa. We had been doing things at school to help raise money for trucks to be sent as there was plenty of food being sent, but no means of transporting it to various places. Band Aid had done “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” the year before this aired and earlier in the year “We Are The World” had come out. I was assuming that SMK was trying to be topical in some way.

When I first saw MBF I was excited to see Sam Melville as I was a fan of the show “Rookies”, where he and KJ played husband and wife, and they were so good together. But then he turned out to be a bad guy and I didn’t like it. So I wasn’t sure what was going on when he reappeared in this episode. I wondered if maybe Tucker had somehow gotten out of jail, especially since the last time it was an African king he was after and now he’s back in Africa. Most times I didn’t catch the reuse of guest stars, but this one was obvious to me.

The other thing that threw me off was Garrett Morris as the mystery man watching Joe leave. The only thing I had ever seen him on was Saturday Night Live and he was hilarious. I wondered what he was doing in this episode. I was trying to picture him as a serious actor. So this made for a strange and bizarre beginning for me.

Oh cool – so great that you can remember your first thoughts Valerie.. I was cheated in a way – because I had read all about the episodes on the forums before I ever saw these big episodes.. oh well.. It’s still always different to see it for yourself huh!

Great catch on the school, iwsod! I never would have noticed that in a million years! The only unusual thing I remember about this episode when I saw it the first time was the fact that SMK was dealing with something going on in Africa. I think it was a first for the show. At the time, I don’t think I was very aware of many issues in African countries unless they made the nightly news. But I was a teenager interested in school, sports, and boys, so there you have it. But if going to Africa got Lee and Amanda to kiss for the first time, then I was all for it. That was what we were all waiting for to happen, wasn’t it? It was as if the show was teasing us with the tags from UN, JEG, and FTF.

This episode and FTF were both rather timely in their allusion to foreign issues other than the Cold War. FTF was touching the issues with the Sandinistas in Central America, and I think this one would be connecting us to the famine in Ethiopia. At least that is what I think of when I watch these two.

good call.. it does seem smk is trying to branch out from seeing the old soviet block as the baddie.. to a more umm ‘inclusive’ baddie – whahahaa..
1985 was the year Glasnost/Perestroika changes were starting to happen in the USSR and there was a desire to warm relations between the two ‘superpowers’ of the time..
I can see that smk would want to seek out new baddies (and lol create some new countries! heck.. why not?! )

I am bouncing in my seat — I am so happy we are at this episode in our walk!
I vividly remember watching this when it was first aired. I didn’t make the Tucker/Joe connection back then, but I was a little worried at this part of the episode that is was going to focus too much on story and action and not on the developing relationship between Lee and Amanda. 🙂 Oh boy!

I don’t remember too much about seeing this episode for the first time, but I do know I didn’t make the Tucker/Joe connection either when it first aired. I don’t think I realized it was the same actor until I saw MBF again after seeing this episode. It doesn’t bother me that they did that, but it might have had I realized it the first time I saw TWWH.

Ditto Cindy! Love this episode! I do remember watching this for the first time back in the 80s. I used to love The Rookies which both Sam Melville and Kate Jackson were in, so I was pretty aware of who he was and I wondered what the heck was going on. Since reusing people was not an unusual occurrence on TV, I probably just chalked it up to that. Oh I can’t wait to delve ahead, yes yes yes!

Jule, I’d like to think my comments are “well thought out” but most of them are dashed off in minutes when I’m supposed to be working or just before I fall asleep at night. (PS. Iwsod, if I ever post a comment that just makes no sense you’ll know I’ve gone to sleep at the keyboard 🙂 )
I’m sure everyone else’s are well thought out though.

I’m going with Kiwismh and BJo on this one. I spend most of my day in the presence of 11 and 12 year olds with a penchant for randomness and non sequiturs and whose answers to most questions are “I don’t know” and “I forgot”. I have mostly spontaneous responses as opposed to well thought out ones. I type as I think or think as I type or one of those.

I have great ideas pop into my head about comments I want to make while I am driving or in the shower. When I finally get to type them I am often interrupted by everyone constantly. Its a wonder I get a coherent thought out at all. I guess I usually think and then try to type.

I get the impression that the writers and producers want us to feel like things are being turned on their heads. Is this SMK? What happened to Lee and Amanda? Are they even in this episode? Who is the bad guy, is there a bad guy?
Maybe that confusion is setting the stage for something??? Hmmm? Maybe?

Agree Morley. And I like the suggestion at the beginning of this episode and FTF of a “real life” issue being the background to an SMK chapter. A lot of the scenarios (and baddies) we see in SMK would require some major re-writing to bring them closer to the world of reality. 😉

COMMENTING GUIDELINES

This blog is for the fun and indepth discussion of Scarecrow and Mrs King episodes.
Please be respectful of all opinions :)

***JWWM does not refer to future events in the show - it stays with the characters on their journey - explores where they are, and what has come before..
therefore- No spoilers beyond where the walk is up to please :) Thanks***

***All posts can be commented on at anytime- Posts are always open for people to add new insights to as they watch or rewatch ***

This Blog is rated PG - Just like the TV show! If it would appear in an smk episode, it can appear here! ;)

Any problems, issues or questions feel free to let me know. (iwsod@optusnet.com.au)
*By posting on this blog, you are agreeing to these guidelines*